Tire retreading (or recapping) operations are generally used to extend the useful service life of a tire by removing previously worn tread from a tire and bonding new tread in its place. Tires may be retreaded one or more times as a less expensive alternative to purchasing new tires, providing particular advantages for large-scale operations such as trucking, bussing and commercial aviation.
In general, a retreading process may involve one or more of the following steps: (1) inspecting a worn tire for safety purposes to ensure fit for the retread process, (2) stripping or buffing the worn tread from the crown of a tire carcass; (3) preparing a new tread; (4) bonding the tread to the buffed tire carcass; and (5) curing the retreaded tire.
Precise buffing of the worn tire casing and/or the base surface of the tread is critical to retread performance, as proper buff texture strengthens the tread to casing bond. Correct preparation of the tire casing and tread base surfaces promotes long, even tread wear.
Known conventional methods for preparing the tire casing involve removal of the old tread from the casing with a rotary “rasp” blade. Pre-molded tread base is typically prepared by brushing the length of such surfaces with an approved brush rotating the length direction of the tread or tire casing. Quality control of such methods may involve mere visual comparison of the prepared surfaces to predetermined standards, for example, the casing buffing standards developed by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA). Visual analysis of surface texture is a subjective method that often lacks quantitative features. As such, a more precise system and method for analyzing surface texture as particularly related to the adhesion strength in tire retread bonding applications is desired.
Although known technology for surface and measurement inspection has been developed, no design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics as hereafter presented in accordance with the subject technology.